Brahma

Sadly, the Creator in Hiduism enjoys the least amount of reverence. Brahma was sidelined due to His decepetive ways and this you can read in an earlier posting on Lord Shiva. As such, Brahma, although having the important role of creating the universe and all life in it, is hardly given the kind of honour and respect other deities receive. He in fact is said to have only one temple dedicated to Him in Pushkar in Rajasthan.

Brahma is traditionally depicted with four heads and four faces and four arms. He initially is said to have five heads but literally lost one of its when turnng armorous, He kept staring at Shatarupa, a divine damsel He had created. Lord Shiva saw how Brahma was allowing lust to take over, chopped off the fifth head, aso because Shatarupa was conceived by Brahma, thus becoming His daughter. Bahma's lust was tantamount to incest.

The remaining four heads, he continually recites one of the four Vedas. He is often depicted with a white beard, indicating the near eternal nature of his existence. He is shown as having four arms, one holding a scepter in the form of a spoon, which is associated with the pouring of holy ghee or oil into a sacrificial pyre - indicating the fact that Brahma is the lord of sacrifices. Another of his hands holds a water-pot (sometimes depicted as a coconut shell containing water). The significance of the water is that it is the initial, all-encompassing ether in which the first element of creation evolved. Brahma also holds a string of rosary beads that he uses to keep track of the Universe's time. He also is shown holding the Vedas, and sometimes, a lotus flower.

Brahma's vehicle is a divine Swan. This divine bird is bestowed with a virtue called Neera-Ksheera Viveka or the ability to separate milk and water from a mixture of the two. The significance of this is that justice should be dispensed to all creatures, however entwined it might be in a situation. Also, this virtue indicates that one should learn to separate the good from the evil and then accept that which is valuable and discard that which is worthless or evil.

You wont find Brahma in most temples but even He gets a second chance in Thailand. Brahma is a popular deity there and has temples dedicated to him all over Thaniland. The most famous one is at the Erawan square, by the side of the Grand Hyatt hotel.